4/17/08

My sister just told me that I haven't posted anything since the 10th, so I'd best write something.

My tulips are coming up, and it's warm enough to go out without shoes. That's the good news. The bad news is my left arm has a pinched nerve and it hurts constantly. I'm going to the chiropractor tomorrow and I sure hope it helps. This is really getting old. I just can't be driving my RV all day long anymore. Getting old stinks. Whoever came up with the phrase 'the golden years' had to have been a 20 yr. old trying to sell something.

Saw something cute today. This lady has a shop on Etsy and she makes the cutest crocheted things. Here's a hat for a dog:

Her shop is at www.pinkkrystals.etsy.com

I put some more beads on Etsy, and I decided to try ebay again. Here are two of my favorites:

4/10/08

Another winter storm is coming through. The wind is howling and the snow/sleet is hitting the windows. Oh, I hate winter. I want warm sunshine, and my sister wants it too so she doesn't have to listen to me whining about the snow.

I put some more beads on Etsy this morning, and one sold already. I have to get back into the routine of putting a couple on every day. This is the one that went. I like making these; there's just something about the color combination.

I ran across a blog that I like. It's http://dailycoyote.blogspot.com. It's about a woman who lives in a one room cabin in Wyoming who found a young orphaned coyote and is raising it. She takes some fantastic photos!

4/3/08

Spring is on its way!! It's supposed to get up to 50° today, and the snow is almost melted. My cow had her calf day before yesterday, a little heifer we named Suzy, after her grandmother. So now my herd has increased to two! I'm going to have to look for a bull calf in a couple of weeks so we have something to put in the freezer next year.

In the last two days, I've seen blue jays, chickadees, dark-eyed juncos, red-winged blackbirds, robins, house finches, red-bellied woodpecker, hairy woodpecker (I think), and bluebirds. Yup, now all we need is green grass and flowers!

3/31/08

It's hard to believe that just one week ago, I was still in Florida. It's cold and dreary and snowing here, and I can already feel myself sinking back into weepy depression.

I think instead of having all my plants and lights at the far end of my studio, I'm going to try to move them onto my glass and computer desk. The ferrets have been pretty good lately about not getting up on my desks, so maybe that will work. Then I can have all the light down here. I'm going to make that my day's project.

3/29/08

Well, we're home. I miss the warm sunshine, but it is nice to back in my own bed. We left Florida Monday morning and got home Wednesday afternoon.

We had a nice time at Gainesville, Florida. We stayed at Travelers Campground for 5 nights. Other than being right next to the freeway, it was pretty nice. They have a bird house there with about 8-10 macaws. The owner let me go into the cage and take some pictures of the birds. I'm going to try doing a watercolor/pen and ink drawing of one. I also went to the Haile House, a 6200 sq. ft. plantation house built in 1856. It was an amazing place. Serena, the wife and mother of 15 kids, started writing on the walls, poetry, a medicine recipe, lists of the silverware, and in a small room, a record of her periods! One of her boys signed his name and the date of 1865 in an upper room. After Serena and Thomas died, the house went to one of the boys who lived in Gainesville. He had parties on the weekends there, and his guests would write on the walls. So there are dates from 1865 up to 1977, when they filmed a movie there. It's interesting to just walk along the walls of the rooms and read all the different dates.



Another day I went to the Florida's Museum of Natural History. They have a butterfly garden there. It was so nice and warm, and colorful with lots of flowers and butterflies. That will certainly be on my list of places to go again, especially when we first get down there from Minnesota.



So now it's back to my daily regiment of having my cup of coffee, doing my Bible study, catch up on the news and email, and then on to lampworking. And wait for warm weather!

3/20/08

What a awful, icky day! I spent quite a bit of it plunging and snaking the toilet and holding tank drain. It's my own fault, I have to admit. In an effort to keep Lukas clean, after a BM I've been using a baby wipe along with toilet paper to wipe him off. TERRIBLE MISTAKE! Now the holding tank is pretty much plugged up. David was kidding me that I should call Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs; I just kept my mouth shut and nodded my head. Mama didn't raise no dummy to be opening my mouth and talking while sewage is splashing on me. This summer I'm going to have the guys rip out all of this carpet and put in linoleum, and then give everything a bleach bath. Dang, I still feel dirty, even after showering and changing into clean clothes. But as Christian said, it's still better than being home with a winter storm watch. I guess so...

3/18/08

Well, we got as far as Greenville, South Carolina yesterday. You can see the Smoky Mountains from here. We were going to head through them today, but last night I ichatted Christian, and he said it snowed, and was still snowing, and was supposed to snow on and off the rest of the week. I dreaded going back in that, so I was pretty happy when David said let's go back south for a while more, to Florida. I thank my God that we've been blessed to where we CAN make a decision like that.

So we're heading back to the warm sunshine.

3/16/08

Today was a lovely day. David got the car first today. He went to a restaurant & had a nice leisurely lunch. When he got back, I went to Barnes & Nobles and picked up some books, a couple about Charleston and a couple of art books. Then I went to the Russell House and toured that. That was not very satisfactory. It was a guided tour and rushed. I much more enjoyed touring the Aiken-Rhett House yesterday. That house was built in 1817 and was purchased by William Aiken in 1826. His son became a governor of South Carolina, and his daughter married Major Rhett, who was a Confederate officer. Descendants of the family lived there until 1972. In 1975 it was donated to the Charleston Museum for a house museum. Today it's not in good shape. Hurricane Hugo caused quite a bit of damage. But it's still impressive. And it was a nice tour because it was self-guided, with an mp3 player, so you could stop and really inspect things if you wanted to. In back of the house is the courtyard, with a stable on one side and kitchen & laundry on the other side, with slave quarters over them. The slave quarters were sad. They look nice and sunny, from the windows of the front of the building, but that is just a hallway, with 4 rooms off the hallway. Each had a door and a small window, and 2 of them had fireplaces. Stark. Going down the stairs, it hit me that 150 years ago, slaves were sliding their hand down the very same handrail that I was using. It was disturbing. This is a picture of the courtyard with the stables to the left, and the kitchen and laundry to the right. The gates in back were where the carriage would have come through to the house.

This is the family entrance into the house.

It was interesting that when I went through the Russell House today, the elderly guide never mentioned slaves, just servants. I wonder if they did have slaves there. I went and sat in the garden after the tour and just enjoyed the warm sunshine and flowers. It felt so good, I was ready to cry. This is a photo of the garden with the Russell House on the left.

These are some of the houses in Charleston. I really like the pastel colors they use.



After I was done there, I went shopping. They have a street called Market Street, which divides into North Market and South Market, and between those two they have brick buildings where it's like an upscale flea market. I bought an African mask that was supposed to be made by the Ashanti tribe in Africa, whether it was or not, it's neat, and I bought a resin Green Man wall decoration. Then I went to a scent shop and bought some incense and and nice incense burner. Then I went sightseeing. I was too late to get a carriage ride through the residential area. Bummer. So I just went and parked the car and walked a few blocks and took photos and then drove around the neighborhood. One back street was cobblestones. You can really see the Spanish influence in this area. The large houses all have piazzas (a porch in midwestern speech) on the south side. They are so impressive!

After that I headed back to the RV. I had to take some pictures of Pip and Squeak. Poor Squeaker, she made the mistake of falling asleep on the same side of me as Pip. Pip woke up and must have thought Squeaker was trying to get to her rawhide chew, because she attacked Squeak. I grabbed her and pushed her down, and had to cuddle Squeak, who was so scared she cried and whimpered for quite a bit. That's the most noise she's made since we got her. Poor baby, she's asleep on the other side of me now, glued to my butt. Here's my sleepy babies.


It's sad to know that tonight is our last night. Tomorrow we head north.

3/13/08

Well, yesterday I was ready to head for home. I think I got a bit of food poisoning, and my shoulders have been really hurting. But this morning I felt better, and went for a massage, and then when we got onto the road again, I think I can squeeze out a few more days. Although I am starting to get homesick, and ready for my own bed, and ready to get back to torching.

Tonight we're at a nice quiet campground, Lake Harmony RV Park, by Townsend, Georgia (and for reference for next year, ask for site #10). I think if we come back here next year, we'll try to get a week or two here. It has cable and decent wifi, so life is good... And if we have a car, I can run up to Savannah and look at houses and cemeteries.

I finally figured out how to get the video off the camera and uploaded. I'm glad that I had David do the video while I tried to catch a couple of photos, because my still photos didn't turn out. If we ever have the chance to view a launch again, I'm jumping at it. It is just such a neat experience. It was amazing how long it took for the sound to get to us. The clip is a minute long, and the sound still hadn't reached us. It took about 1 1/2 minutes, and then the rumble came and got louder and louder. Amazing.

3/11/08 2:39 a.m.

It happened way too fast!! And there was a low cloud cover. It was so impressive and fast!!! The sky lit up a milky orange, then there was a bright light with a trail behind it, and the clouds just seemed to open up and swallow it. It looked kind of like an orange tornado, with the trail going back down to earth. When we get hooked up at the campground, I'm going to pull the video onto the computer and try to get some pictures off of that. There just wasn't enough time to get still pics.

3/10/08 8:49 p.m.

It's 10:30 p.m., and we're parked on the Cocoa Beach Causeway. We're right next to the ocean, with a couple of huge cruise ships to our right, and across the bay is the Space Center. With the binoculars, I can see the shuttle. Now that it's dark, they have it all lit up. It's exciting to be here. I watched the first shuttle launch on TV, and when John Glenn went on a shuttle mission, that was just about as exciting. This is a one in a lifetime chance for me to actually be here when one launches. Only another 4 hours to go... Oh boy, am I going to make it? I'm already yawning!! Where's the coffee!!

3/9/08

Well, tomorrow is the big day. We're still south of Orlando. Tomorrow morning we'll return the rental car, come back here, do some laundry maybe, and get a nap in. Then tomorrow afternoon we're going to head over to the coast and hopefully find a good place along the causeway where we can park the rv. I sure hope it works out.

3/5/08

I almost creamed a guy buzzing onto the freeway today. Sheesh! It's not like a 32' motorhome is hard to miss. I couldn't even swing into the other lane, because I had a car right beside me. I hope he pooped in his pants, because when I slammed on the brakes, he looked over his shoulder and saw me. He was so close he was almost sitting on my dash.

We're west of Pensacola, Florida for tonight. It's pretty noisy here, the campground is right next to the freeway. Tomorrow we'll find another campground, and then we'll stay around Kissammee until the 11th. Then we have a campground booked at Titusville for the night of the 11th & 12th, and hopefully the shuttle takes off as scheduled. It would be such a thrill to see a shuttle take off. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

3/3/08

Cardinal Rule #1: NEVER, NEVER GO TO A ZOO ON A WEEKEND, especially if they're having a band playing loud music.

I went to the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans yesterday. It was OK, but not as nice as Jacksonville Zoo in Florida. Maybe it was just too hot and too crowded...

We're still at the KOA east of Baton Rouge. We're here until Wednesday. This would be a 5 star campground if only their wifi weren't so blasted slow. They have a nice huge fenced in area for dogs to play, and Pip and Squeak appreciate that.

Tomorrow I'm going to do some more sightseeing, and go to that huge Barnes & Nobles store. That is the biggest bookstore I've seen. It's a good thing Christian isn't with, I can spend as much time in there as I want without anyone hanging over my shoulder reminding me he's ready to go :)

3/1/08

What a lost day! I sure am glad we extended our stay here a couple of more days. My day started out trying to get the satellite dish set up. Then about another hour trying to find the instruction manual for the receiver. Then a half hour driving around trying to find an RV store (which was closed), then an hour at Walmart, then the rest of the afternoon working on the satellite again. I can't even get any signal on it.

Tomorrow I'm going to run away. David just called. He went to get something to eat, and now he's lost. And it's dark.

I'm going to get Lukas his supper, and I'm going to have a salad, instead of the Shrimp Creole that David was going to pick up for me from the restaurant here at the campground, that's only open until 7:30 (less than an hour left), that is only serving it today.

Tomorrow I'm running away.

2/26/08

It cooled down a bit. It's only 55° and cloudy. A nice break from the heat. I know, I'm being a stinker, but it's easy to be smug when a week ago it was going to be -16° at night.

We're in a very nice campground south of Houston, very small but good cable and wifi, and only $21.50. If we come down next year, this is going to be a place to check out for staying a week or two.

I really haven't taken any pictures yet. Nothing too inspiring, other than Squeaker.


This is Lukas' new dog. We adopted her in Corpus Christi. I need to get to a Petsmart and get a couple of harnesses. Both dogs have slipped out of their collars, and it's scary! Squeaker is very slowly warming up to us, and Lukas is very slowly warming up to her. She is a sweet little thing, very hard to resist, and hopefully the vet at home will be able to do something with her teeth!

Well, I'm going to surf the net and see if there's anything I want to see down here before we head to Louisiana.

2/22/08

The sun is shining, it's 56° and supposed to get to 68° today, and the birds are singing. What more can I say, other than I love it!

Monday was horrible, trying to get things out to the RV in freezing wind, and then driving in the wind. At least it was pushing us south. When we got down to Owatonna, we started getting into the blowing snow. It was close to white out conditions. Then when we got into Iowa, we started seeing cars in the ditches. It was down to 25-35 mph. Somewhere around Mason City, a wind gust pulled up the TV antenna and tore it off. I thought it was the awning, David thought it was a flat tire, it was so noisy. We pulled over and I went out, and saw the cable sticking up out of the roof, and figured it was the antenna. We finally stopped about 7:30 at a rest stop about 50 miles north of Des Moines. I counted 92 vehicles in the ditch, and there were more than that, because I laid down to take a nap while David drove, and then after dark, I couldn't see the other side of the freeway.

Tuesday night we stopped at a Walmart in Wheatland, Kansas for the night. We couldn't find the RV park we were looking for (we were only a couple of blocks from it, turns out). It was finally turning warmer, in the 60s. But then the next morning the cold front from the north moved in, and was cold again. Wednesday night we stopped at an RV park in Oklahoma.

Yesterday we got into Texas and went through Dallas/Ft. Worth and Austin. We ended up at Crestview RV park south of Austin. If they had picnic tables, I'd be happier to stay longer so I could go out and do some drawing. But they do have wifi for all the computers and good cable, and I promised Lukas we'd stay here for tonight too, so he can was the last episode of 1 vs. 100 on the TV. He has not been handling the transition to the RV very well, although getting to watch TV and play the computer and ichat to Christian last night helped. Today we're going to go to Best Buy and buy a new DVD personal player for him so he can watch DVDs in bed after David & I go to sleep.

Tomorrow we're going to head down to Corpus Christi and try to get into a campground by the ocean, and they have a large pet shelter there I want to take Lukas to, and look for a small dog for him. I'm hoping to get a dog that will bond to him, and maybe he'll quit complaining about the dogs wanting to sleep with me and not with him.

2/15/08

Well, the RV sits out in the driveway, just waiting for us to get the snowblower out and clear out a space on the lawn so we can get it hooked up to electric and get the furnace going. Right now it -3°, but at least there's no wind. I am really looking forward to getting out of here, but I'm going to miss my ferrets, especially Fang. She has really grown on me. When she's ready to settle down, she likes to cuddle up on my chest and conk out. She is SOOOOO cute!

I got the new Glassline magazine yesterday and started reading it while on the bike this morning. There's an article about keeping a daily sketchbook, which I'm going to try to take to heart. It's a really good idea, not only for improving drawing skills, but for keeping track of my color combinations on my beads. I have so many different colors now, around 200. And then when you get into the striking or reduction colors, it's difficult to tell which is which on a bead that was done weeks or months ago. So there's my New Year's Resolution. Keep a drawing and bead diary. And I'm going to have to do it as soon as I put the bead in the kiln, because here are 2 beads I made last night, and all I remember is the pinkish-beige one is moccasin. All the other colors I've already forgotten. It's the pits getting old...

2/14/08

MY RV'S READY TO BE PICKED UP!!!!! I'm so ready for warm sunshine!!!!!!!!

If anyone wants to pick up some of my beads cheap, I put everything on Etsy 20% off until Sunday night!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!
(Do you think I'm excited?)

2/14/08

A friend just sent an email titled 'A stroll down memory lane,' and it had a picture of an old school with a tube fire escape.

Yes, that did bring back memories. We had one of those fire escape tubes on our elementary school. In the summer when the school was closed, we would climb inside up to the top and slide down. Couldn’t do it on real hot days though, because the metal was too hot to touch!

Yah, wooden floors that creaked, tall stairways that we’d line up on to file past the desk with the nurse to give our vaccinations (and me crying because I was afraid of needles, and still am!), and the sugar cube with the polio vaccination, the little old lady teacher dressed in dark clothes walking around the classroom with the wooden ruler in her hand to wack anyone making noise (Bill Severson got more than his share. I wonder whatever happened to him.)

We picked up the RV yesterday from the garage, and took it to Pleasureland to get the leak in the roof fixed and a couple of other things done. I sure hope it's a quick and easy fix. It snowed last night, and today and tomorrow are supposed to be cold again.

I've been getting some cool beads made the last couple of days. I like playing with the glass shards and reduction flames.

2/10/08

It is FRIGID out there, -17° below with a whipping NW wind. Wind chills are around -35°. And I think there's something wrong with the furnace. It's 56° in the kitchen where the thermostat is, and it's set to 68°. Just what I need on one the coldest days of the winter, and on a Sunday. I hate winter...

It was 43° in my bedroom this morning. Makes for good sleeping, though, when you have a mattress pad heater and a couple of nice warm blankets.

Nothing new, even the news is the same old stuff, people getting killed in horrible accidents, by spouses or ex's who have to be the most incredible idiots alive (one made 90 calls to the killer in the two weeks before he shot her ex). The most horrible and depressing news is when children are killed. That is the most evil of all.

Well, on that happy note, I'm off to do my Bible study and exercise on the bike, then to make some beads.

2/8/08

Goodness sakes, look what popped out of my kiln this morning!

There are some nice ones in this latest bunch.

It's snowing again... Cold and gloomy and dreary. And they still haven't finished with the RV. I just called and they expect to be done with it today. Next I have to call Pleasureland and see about getting it in to get the AC circuit looked at, and the fact that when it rains, it leaks in through the roof air conditioner. Not pleasure in a thunderstorm, as we found last winter in Louisiana.

Well, I'm off to make some more beads.

2/4/08

Well, I'm starting to get in the mood to go south. I took the RV in last week to get some mechanical work done on it. I sure hope everything works out. It would be so nice to have some warm sunshine. It's another cold gloomy day, although not as cold as last week. They're talking snow today. That's OK, we need some ground cover so the perennials don't freeze out.

I got new glass and new toys last week. I just started playing with the glass. Here's a couple of new colors with shards. I really love the Pale Old Gold color; it's a creamy translucent yellow-orange.


I also got my disc cutters and transfer punches. I'm waiting to get some tubing and silver sheets from Monsterslayer, then I'm ready to make beads caps and start coring some beads. I'll post pictures when I get some done.

1/29/08

Here I go again, whining about the weather. It's -1 and the NW wind is howling and rattling the roof. It is so cold...

I was going to take the RV in today to get some work done on it, but it ain't happening! Instead, I think I will just drool over some seed catalogs. That and run in and get a refill on my propane tank. It ran out last night when I was getting ready to make a bead.

I posted another couple of beads on etsy. This one I really like, with the metallic reflections.

1/21/08

Not much luck with the coring machine. I busted 2 beads so far. I think this is going to take a bit of practice. In the meantime, I'm still struggling to get good pictures with my camera; everything seams so out of focus. Very frustrating.

Here's one of my latest focals:

1/18/08

It is Frigid! out there, -8° with a northwest wind. I hate winter. I wish I were in Florida right now, even Texas would be better than this!

I got my new silver coring machine today. I'll give it a try and post a picture of the results.

And I just posted another bead on my shop at Etsy. It has dichroic glass under the flowers, so there's glimmers of magenta red and orange popping through.

1/9/08

I've been playing around with some new glass, ASK 104. There are a couple of violet/lavender colors that I really like. Here's a couple of florals:


It's another gloomy Minnesota winter day out there. Sometimes having nice big windows isn't so nice, like right now, although, yes it does look kind of nice with all of the trees covered with a frosty coating.

I've decided I'm going to order another oxygen concentrator to get a hotter flame on my torch. I've been following threads on Lampworketc. and everyone says that's the way to go. Maybe I'll go with Christian tomorrow when he goes shopping & I'll stop off at Menards to get a splitter to hook both of them up.

There was a post on Lampworketc. this morning about things to be thankful for. I've been reading Ahmed Al-Omran's blog, Saudi Jeans, http://saudijeans.org/. He's a Saudi Arabian blogger, and lately he's been writing about another SA blogger who was arrested for writing about the SA government. I remember back in the 70s when I was in college. I signed a petition calling for the release of a person who had been arrested for doing something against the govenment, I can't remember any of the details other than that (gosh, I hope it wasn't Patty Hearst). But as I was walking away, I got a scared feeling that I shouldn't have signed it, that the FBI might come after me for signing it. Ridiculous, huh? But think about the courage of these SA bloggers, knowing that they CAN be arrested, and still they go on and declare to the world the injustices perpetrated by their political system. Our country has its share of problems, and corrupt politicians is a big one, but even so, I'm so thankful that I live here.

1/6/08

Yippee Skippee!! I sold some more beads on Etsy! In the last 2 weeks I've sold as much on Etsy as I did in 2 months on ebay. I hope it keeps going like this.

It's a very nice day today, 41° and partly sunny. Spring is on the way; we just have to go another couple of weeks for the temperatures to officially start to warm up.

I got some new glass from Double Helix today and made a couple of beads with it. And Wednesday I've got a shipment of glass coming in with some new colors. Fun, fun! I need a little boost in creativity. I've been struggling lately to come up with something I'm really getting a kick out of doing. Maybe I'll try making another vessel. I like the way the last one turned out.

I love working with silvered ivory and getting that marbled look. Cool!

12/29/07

Another day of snow :(

I made a couple of beads, got Lukas up & dressed & fed, cleaned a bit, read a bit & took a nap. Another exciting day...

Well, at least I got some photos of my beads done and listed a couple sets and some prints on etsy.

12/23/07

Yippee Skippee!!! I made my first etsy sale! A print, not beads, which is just fine with me.

12/23/07

It's snowing and the wind is howling from the northwest. Well, at least the days are getting longer...

I have decided to shift away from making sets of beads, for a while anyway. Since I got back from going out west, I have been selling beads for too low of a price on ebay trying to build up a following, and it just isn't happening. So I'm going to make beads that I like to do, and do just focals for now. If they sell on Etsy, fine, if they don't, fine too. It least I'll be enjoying myself making them.

Diane on wetcanvas posted a butterfly tutorial, and I'm going to give that a try today. I was thinking maybe I'll try it with boro.

12/21/07

I just had to put on the pictures of a couple of beads I did this morning. They turned out really nice, especially the reddish brown with peach dots.

12/19/07

The gremlins are out to get me, truly. The cat knocked my trackball down on the floor, the ferrets found out that the scroll button has that nice, soft rubber that they just love to chew on... Scratch one trackball. Not even 5 minutes of using a mouse and my wrist is starting to ache. I know where I'm going Saturday: Best Buy to buy another trackball.

12/18/07

Oh, this winter just gets better and better... We went out to do chores and Suzy, my cow, was down in the barn. Yes, she was old, and yes, I had planned on putting her down before it got too cold, but I just kept putting it off because she was still getting around. I called the vet & he put her down. I am so tired of crying.

12/15/07

Only about another week until the days start getting longer!!!! Can you tell I DON'T LIKE WINTER!?!

I bought another ferret. I was so depressed with everything happening, I went to Petco to look at ferrets. They only had one left, and she bit me so bad the store clerk had to run for a bandaide. (They gave me a discount. What could I do? If someone with less experience had bought her, she would have ended up in a cage or released outside. Not my baby!) It took a couple of days handling her with leather gloves, but now she's such a little sweetheart! (I named her Fang.) She falls asleep behind me on my chair when I'm on the computer, and she loves to play with snow, and Pip and her play together. She is just so much fun!

This is Frankie keeping Fang inside the dirt box.

This is Fang playing with Bandit

I have flexible tubes for the ferrets to play in, and this is Frankie keeping Fang inside one, with Taz watching

And here is Pip playing with Fang. She's hiding in a watering can.

I've opened a shop on Etsy. I have so many beads laying around, I have to do something with them, and ebay is such a let-down lately. I'm just not going to sell my beads for $1 a bead when it takes me 10-15 minutes to do one, and then to have to pay ebay and paypal fees... I'll see how Etsy goes, and maybe sell my orphan beads on ebay.